For which taxpayers picked up the tab.

October 8, 2017

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Vice President John Nance Garner once said that being the vice president was “not worth a bucket of warm piss.” (Many know this quote as “bucket of warm spit.” It’s “piss.”) The current holder of that office, Mike Pence, showed on Sunday that Garner, if alive, would owe an apology to piss buckets everywhere.

Pence used the NFL to star in a cheap, transparent political stunt. The narrative Pence tried—and failed—to sell was that he showed up at the Colts-49ers game in Indianapolis and then supposedly left in a huff after being shocked—shocked!—to see the San Francisco 49ers kneel. After assumedly taking a whiff of his personal smelling salts, he immediately released a statement that magically was already prepared, which read in part, “I left today’s Colts game because @POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem.”

Forget for a moment that this is a vice president who fronts for a commander in chief who mocked a POW and insulted the family of a slain solider, yet blathers about “disrespect.” Forget that he just used “soldiers, Flag, and National Anthem” for his own form of protest (irony!). Forget even his bizarre capitalization of “Flag.”

It’s not what happened. It’s how it happened. This was staged: a taxpayer-subsidized stunt aimed at attacking dissenting black athletes. It was revealed in record time to be yet another toxic effort by this administration to divide people along racial lines and distract us from a train wreck of an administration, described by Senator Bob Corker as “an adult day care center” that looks after a big orange baby.

The first sign that Pence’s scurrying-off was staged: These were the San Francisco 49ers that the Colts were playing. The 49ers have been protesting racism during the anthem for over a year. Led by safety Eric Reid, the first player to kneel with Colin Kaepernick over a year ago, the 49ers are the team you’d pick if you wanted to fake outrage about someone’s peacefully protesting police brutality. Peter Alexander of NBC News tweeted almost immediately, “Reporters [accompanying Pence] were told to stay in van bc ‘there may be an early departure from the game.’” In other words, in advance of the anthem, Pence was planning to show up and then leave.

Then the veep’s own publicly available schedule tripped him up. That morning, his team let it be known that Pence would be at a California fundraiser by 6:30 pm. The plane was gassed up and ready to go. Pence actually flew from Nevada to Indianapolis to go to a game for five minutes only to fly back to the West Coast. As Sports Illustrated’s Peter King tweeted, “@VP took a taxpayer-funded airplane knowing he’d be walking out right after the anthem to protest. Swell use of our tax dollars.”

When you factor in the Secret Service, the diverting of law enforcement, as well as the clearing of air and road traffic to get him in and out, this was at least a six-figure authoritarian stunt.

Current Issue

Just to add an even thicker lacquer of incompetence, Pence tweeted out a photo of himself from the game; yet, as The Indianapolis Star quickly noted, the photo was from 2014.

Then, like a baby who wants to show a room of adults what’s in his diaper, Trump tweeted out that this was all his doing, hanging Pence out to dry. He wrote, “I asked @VP Pence to leave stadium if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country.”

This was amateur-hour fraud. It was Gulf of Tonkin for idiots: a ham-handed effort to isolate people brave enough to dissent in the face of the most powerful people in the world and raise issues of racism that this administration is too craven to discuss. It’s also very disturbing. The very week Sarah Huckabee Sanders spoke about Trump’s “respect for the First Amendment,” we had a staged spectacle with the highest levels of government attempting to intimidate and coerce people to not exercise those rights. It’s disgusting, and another example of Pence’s degradation, his Faustian bargain with this administration. If Mike Pence thinks he can deodorize Trump with a fraudulent photo op, he should know that even the contents of John Nance Garner’s bucket gives off less of a stench.

Not ONLY was this STAGED, as this sports writer was able to QUICKLY pull hard data to confirm... but SO FEW able to take out from Sports to show how Trumpsters are destroying our Democracy under his rule for his buddy ELITIST to form official REGIME for THEM are ALL ... vs... We the People... Rev. Billy Grahams son FRANKLIN and others well PAID for their treasonous acts... are now part of this REGIME of MASS MURDERS AND DESTORYERS... easy to figure out if one uses one brain...

(2)(1)

Michael Robertsonsays:

October 10, 2017 at 12:47 pm

Looking for that silver lining, at least he did not stay in this state long. Now if only he would move himself off to some foreign theocracy that is sufficiently pious for his righteous and perpetually aggrieved self, we would all be rid of this butthole.

(3)(1)

Robert Ryleysays:

October 9, 2017 at 6:59 pm

Today I fully agree with Dave Zirin. I would go one step further. Since the majority of players are non-white it seems pretty obvious Trump and Pence are tyring to gin up even more hate from the racists element of their base. It's what ignites these bigots into action. ChickenHawks like Trump and Pence are phonier than you can imagine and their actions reveal them to be just what they are: Cheap racists trying to stir up hate.

(18)(1)

David Blaskasays:

October 9, 2017 at 12:42 pm

The Kaepernick Cop(ier)s are protesting … what? Police treatment of black people in the U.S.! They have bought into the proven Ferguson lie of “hands up, don’t shoot.”

They’re protesting the wrong thing!

If the millionaires in pads want to do some virtue signaling, how about protesting the wife beaters, dog fighters, child abusers, gun-waving coke heads, drunk drivers, and cheap-shot artists in their own ranks!

(7)(47)

Michael Poprawasays:

October 10, 2017 at 2:33 pm

What a tool! Right out of the Drumph playbook. Unable to make an intelligent logical comment - change the subject. You should apply for a job in the administration, they are running out of brain dead sycophants.

(4)(1)

Michael Robertsonsays:

October 10, 2017 at 12:57 pm

How about protesting the multi-millionaire owners who knowingly sign players of questionable character?

(1)(1)

Walter Pewensays:

October 9, 2017 at 1:51 pm

File this as unclear on the topic. A weasel around every corner these days....

(16)(1)

Edward M Protassays:

October 9, 2017 at 11:42 am

Mike Pence acted according to script
Then the Trumpster let all of it slip
As the fraud become clear
Twas all staged - insincere
Pence flew in then flew out - well-timed skip

And taxpayers pick up the tab
For the staged spectacle - it all was pre-fab
Mike had no intention to stay
Acted the pawn in Trump's play
The golden idol looks evermore drab

(27)(1)

Tom Zeugsays:

October 9, 2017 at 8:43 am

Pence can not possibly dignify any event. What a tool!

(22)(2)

Gregory Howardsays:

October 9, 2017 at 2:09 am

It wasn't a cheap stunt at all. It cost us grunts, the American taxpayers, as much as $250,000 (current guesstimates) for the President & Vice President to attempt such a truly stupid political hoax that fooled very few people for more than 15 minutes.

Yo, @VP: You used a 3 year old photo and didn't think it would be recognized? Really? Did you really think your published itinerary wouldn't be noticed? Seriously? Did you not know that no matter what happened, DJT was going to blow it all up with another one of his tweets?

Yes, I'm aware that Trump is an egotistic, selfish, misogynistic 12 year old with serious anger management issues, and that's bad.

But I don't think our country has ever experienced this level of incompetence from the denizens of the White House in our storied history. What the <bleep> do we do now?

(41)(3)

Curtis Carpentersays:

October 9, 2017 at 12:18 am

I don't know about the job, but I could see Pence being compared -- unfavorably -- to that bucket. Trump's stink seems to rub off on people, but some, like Pence, bring their own.

(27)(1)

Kathleen Nixonsays:

October 8, 2017 at 11:50 pm

You nailed it perfectly, Dave! Thanks for a superb piece!

(28)(1)

Walter Pewensays:

October 8, 2017 at 10:38 pm

When was the last time the GOP ran anyone for VP that one could respect?
Pence may be the most insidious of all. After attacking his own state of Indiana, he was summoned by Trump to continue in Washington.
If you look at Pence's record, there is not one thing he has ever done that actually benefited the majority, almost every "deed" he has ever done is at the expense of the weaker, for his own personal aggrandizement. His life and soul are a nightmare, and he, like Trump is truly evil. Evil beyond most people's imagination.

(40)(1)

Carl Schwartzsays:

October 9, 2017 at 11:34 am

Pence is Trump's Martin Bormann. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Bormann
When Trump whistles, Pence comes, like a well-trained dog.